This contribution seeks to bring together three themes in a descriptive and exploratory manner: (a) community service orders, (b) traffic offences and (c) restorative justice; the Dutch situation is central. To this end, the Dutch legal regulation regarding community service orders is first explained. Attention is also paid to existing empirical research on the effectiveness of community service orders in terms of reduction of recidivism (section 2). Furthermore, the sanctioning of traffic offences is discussed as well as the consequences for this of the current bill that seeks to sharpen criminal liability for serious traffic offences (section 3). Subsequently, it is examined which restorative justice provisions or modalities are available and how restorative community service orders are and can be designed (section 4). Finally, I describe my ideal when it comes to the sanctioning of traffic offences in the form of a continuum in which a special role is reserved for restorative community service orders (section 5). The contribution ends with a conclusion (section 6).

This article focuses on the ways the NVU, Pegida and Voorpost - three far-right groups from the Netherlands - make use of social media platforms in the year 2017. Our results show that these extreme right-wing groups use social media to spread their ideology, to construct a group identity, and to call for (democratic) forms of resistances. In addition, our findings illustrate that these far-right groups seem to adjust to their digital surroundings: they do not change or conceal their extremist ideas, but rather manage their online content to ensure that their ideologies can be disseminated through social media.

In our 2017 report “Profielen van outlaw bikers and outlawbiker clubs” we concluded, “Dutch members of outlaw motorcycle gangs disproportionally frequently have a history criminal justice contacts”. The attorney representing the Hells Angels in the civil law suit filed by the Dutch public prosecutor requesting a civil ban of the Hells Angels, after consulting an expert methodologist, challenged this conclusion due to the possibility of type 2 and type 1 errors in constructing our sample from a police gang database. Here we calculate the proportion of convicted Hells Angels members under different levels of potential bias resulting from these errors. We find that a realistic estimate of the proportion of convicted individuals among the Dutch Hells Angels membership is between 58-96%, which, at a minimum, is roughly twice that in an age-matched population of male motorcyclists who are not members of an outlaw motorcycle club.

This study describes the trend in victimization of homicide in the Netherlands in the period 1992-2016. Using data from the Dutch Homicide Monitor, the findings show that the homicide rate has been falling since the 1990s. This decrease is the greatest among male and female victims between the ages 20 and 39. This findings emphasize the importance of shifting the discussion about the general homicide drop to an in-depth analysis of gender and age of victims of homicide.

This article relates criminological research on youth delinquency to the social development of adolescents. Starting point is a goal-framing approach which assumes that young people aim for the achievement of two goals: status (‘getting ahead’) and belonging (‘getting along’). Peers form an important context for achieving these goals. Therefore, the role of delinquency in peer networks is examined: on the one hand, the extent to which delinquency contributes to peer status, and on the other hand, how delinquency contributes to the formation of network relationships and, vice versa, how network relationships influence adolescents’ delinquency. Finally, several directions for further research are discussed.

Recent studies show that neurocognitive functioning of people within the criminal justice system might be relevant for judicial intervention and reintegration programs, but the use of this information is hindered by – among other things – a lack of appropriate norm scores for neuropsychological tests. A total of 272 detainees completed the d2 attention and concentration test. This article shows that for the d2 attention and concentration test, the already available norm scores are not appropriate for the use within the criminal justice system. New norm scores for Dutch detainees are provided, based on outcomes of a regression based norm procedure. These norm scores are made freely available.

Criminologists have by and large sought to explain crime by the deficiencies people may have. It took till the 1970s until the idea that crime can also be caused by structural power inequalities got an actual name in criminology: crimes of the powerful. Starting with the works of Willem Bonger and Edward Ross in the early 20^th century, the author analyses how critical criminologists like Frank Pearce introduced the term ‘crimes of the powerful’ in the 1970s and how this concept was subsequently applied to gender- and racial inequalities, state crime, corruption et cetera, whilst pointing at the topical relevance of using a lens of ‘crimes of the powerful’ as a sensitising concept to analyse present-day problems, ranging from sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church to the banking sector or indeed the expropriation of indigenous lands in the Amazon by soy-farmers and timber traders.

For social scientists undertaking critical research on elites in organisational contexts securing access is a challenging exercise that may rely on the use of several access strategies over extended periods. This process is further complicated by the existence of research ethics frameworks that establish boundaries to access strategies, posing dilemmas on how to best balance access needs with a commitment to ethical practices. This article focuses on such dilemmas – or the ‘ethics of access’ – through a reflection on PhD fieldwork during 2016-2017 in Luxembourg spent researching the European Investment Bank. The paper will conclude by calling for an overhaul of existing frameworks in order to foster more research on elites.